Home Q&A: How to find colours that work for your living space

Keep in mind that what looks great in your pal's house might not fly in yours. From aspect to fabrics, here are our top tips

Nature is a source of inspiration for every colour scheme. File pictures

Many of us suffer from decision exhaustion, and that includes finding key colourways for our homes. There are several ways to get those creative juices flowing. 

First up, you might pick up on even a single lifestyle image with a pleasing set of principal, accent and companion colours, be it from a magazine, the online look-book of an interiors brand, or a single aspirational property on socials. 

Keep in mind that what looks great in one home might not fly in another. The aspect delivering natural light will have a huge bearing on how the paint and fabric colours actually appear. 

DM Insta-renovators for the exact brands, colours and paint type they used (ask for the RAL number if possible, as you can get colours mixed).

Paint brands and fabric houses deliver not only some of the most inspirational image spreads every year, but they tee up colour and design collections that are created to work together perfectly as harmonising and complementary colours, to which you can add some well-considered accents of your own choosing. 

These collections will have been put together most likely by seasoned professional interior designers and colourists, over not months but years, and are intended to have universal, lasting appeal in various home types. Take full advantage of that exquisite expertise and then test, test, test.

Do you have a dress or a cushion, or a painting that you love? Have you thought about extracting a colour-scheme from a patterned fabric (I’ve taken a bedroom from the jiving shades in a summer dress!). 

Notice the main grounding colour and how that supports dashes of other colour within the design. Finally, and I know this might seem wild, turn to nature. 

I’m constantly humbled, amazed and quietly comforted by how the universe presents growing things in not just microscopic golden ratios, but just the right range of colours and texture, be it lichen growing on a beautiful leathery bark, to flowers frothing from under woodland trees. 

Take your phone with you for a beach wander or while forest bathing and let your imagination fly.